Maybe Its Time To Change The Channel

At my mom's house, there is only one places where one ever eats meals: the dining room table. Its a cozy little table, in the cozy little dining room right off the living room. The TV is sort of between the two on a swivel and pretty much is always on, if for nothing other than background noise.

My nine-year-old sister has a playroom in the basement (which is really in shambles and smells like the many pets we have which reside down there) with a TV. As enforced by my stepfather (whose youngest kid is almost 18), the basement TV is where the "kid shows" are played, and the living room TV pretty much stays on CSI or Law and Order. Gwen, being practically an only child, since the older kids are mostly moved out and hardly ever stay there, has a bit of an attention problem. If the TV is on, she stares at it, and forgets to chew her food. This was a problem for my stepfather, so she is made to sit with her back to the TV. This has been the case for about two years.

Now that the kid is a little older, she's getting more and more perceptive, even if she's not looking at what she hears or following the story detail for detail. Last week we had a family dinner at my uncle's house, and the kid found some sidewalk chalk. She asked my uncle, who was manning the grill, if she could use it. Side note: he said "Only if you don't get any on the driveway." There is no sidewalk in his neighborhood.

She drew these:That is a dead toucan, a dead cat cartoon character, and a family of dead whales.

And this last one, down right near the street, for all the neighbors to see. For this masterpiece, she dragged my stepdad outside to see, and told him "Look! I drew the guy from CSI: Miami!""He's laying in a pool of his own blood!"